Island Update Ending August 21, 2005

Monday started out with rain as it did all night long. Diane was up early and she, Timothy and Shamus departed on the 0715 boat and made it home safely. Stephen, Patrick and Casco arrived on the 0915 out of Portland, tired, but happy to have arrived. Mostly visiting and napping during the rest of the day which turned out to be a beautiful. No, we didn't do our morning walk, too much going on. We did get gas for the golf cart, $2.99pt9/gallon.

Tuesday we did lots of sitting on the front porch including first thing in the morning with Mom & Dad still in their robes headed for the shower, talking to Stephen and Casco. Later Dad and Stephen took Casco for a rather decent walk. Lots of rummy playing, golf cart driving by Patrick, painting at the 5th Maine plus a couple hours Docenting by Dad. Mom gave Lauren a lesson on hanging out laundry and they also wondered up the street to the post office and store.

Wednesday started out rather peaceful until we caught the 1045 boat to go to a 1300 Sea Dogs game which turned out to be a noon game. Although we had general admission tickets (5 of us for $20.00) we ended up with great seats. I don't know how Mom worked that one out. Unfortunately, the Sea Dogs lost! Back on the 1515, miscellaneous for supper and Tripoli after supper with the winners being Stephen and Lauren.

On Thursday Mom and Dad managed to get up in time for a walk with Denise and a good walk it was. Afterwards, Mom and Lauren went to town on the 1945 and the rest of us tooled around the island doing and sometimes accomplishing various things. Another game of Tripoli tonight followed by playing with Google Earth that Stephen got on the computer. My but it was lots of fun, but bedtime didn't come until 0045, much too late for our old bones.

After saying last night that we didn't have anything scheduled for Friday which meant that there was no reason to get up early (Lauren and Patrick don't get up early anyway although Lauren always beats Patrick) there was a knock on the bedroom door and in came Stephen with coffee and the newspaper. A nice way to start the day. Today was big breakfast day since there are no Sundays available for this crew. Lauren and Mom did more laundry, Lauren took the final load of bottles back (laundry room looks much better without them) and Dad took Lauren out to drive the golf cart which probably lasted the better part of an hour. She had a ball. Stephen and Patrick trimmed the hedge, the top of the maple tree (to improve the view from the front porch) and cleared the bamboo from the stairs to the beach. Dad mowed part of the lawn that he hadn't done for a few weeks. He is very inconsistent with how he mows the lawn this year. We had supper early so they could catch the 1800 ferry on their was back to Virginia, where they arrived safely. Incidentally, all the stories we had heard about a hyperactive Casco proved an exaggeration since she was a very calm and peaceful dog while here. Of course she did devour a tub of margarine off the counter today.

By Saturday we kind of slept in perhaps an extra hour. It turned out to be a cloudy hazy rather on the cold side day with us dressed in sweat shirts. Dad did finish mowing the lawn before we had a few showers. We also got the beds all made so we are ready for the next influx. We did go out in the golf cart to look for Dong to wish him a happy birthday, but we had to call him because he left the island around noon. He seemed very surprised and pleased. By bed time Portland had disappeared.

Sunday again so soon. We started out at the Lions Club in the fog for breakfast. We were the first to arrive. Dad seems to have a reputation because he had a particularly large helping of potatoes and they were very good. We did the 1000 Mass and came home for coffee before going to 2 open houses. One was on Luther Street just this side of the police station. Interesting, but small and designed so you couldn't really make it into a comfortable house. The other was on Bracket just before the 4-way stop. As you look at it from the street it goes up 4 stories. It was very nicely maintained and relatively new, but very poorly designed. It had 1-1/2 baths which were anything but convenient to any place in the house. Too hard to explain further. Not much else went on today. It turned out to be very humid and warm, but since the sun has gone down it has cooled off. We had leftovers for supper so the frig is looking rather neat.

That is it for another week. Looking at our calendar it seems as though there are too many things for us to do this coming week.

Love, Mom and Dad